The search for new therapeutic agents has been greatly aided in recent years by a better understanding of the structure of enzymes and other biomolecules associated with diseases. One important class of enzymes that has been the subject of extensive study is protein kinases.
Protein kinases constitute a large family of structurally related enzymes that are responsible for the control of a variety of signal transduction processes within the cell. (Hardie, G. and Hanks, S. The Protein Kinase Facts Book, I and II, Academic Press, San Diego, Calif.: 1995). Protein kinases are thought to have evolved from a common ancestral gene due to the conservation of their structure and catalytic function. Almost all kinases contain a similar 250-300 amino acid catalytic domain. The kinases may be categorized into families by the substrates they phosphorylate (e.g., protein-tyrosine, protein-serine/threonine, lipids, etc.). Sequence motifs have been identified that generally correspond to each of these kinase families (See, for example, Hanks, S. K., Hunter, T., FASEB J. 1995, 9, 576-596; Knighton et al., Science 1991, 253, 407-414; Hiles et al., Cell 1992, 70, 419-429; Kunz et al., Cell 1993, 73, 585-596; Garcia-Bustos et al., EMBO J. 1994, 13, 2352-2361).
In general, protein kinases mediate intracellular signaling by affecting a phosphoryl transfer from a nucleoside triphosphate to a protein acceptor that is involved in a signaling pathway. These phosphorylation events act as molecular on/off switches that can modulate or regulate the target protein biological function. These phosphorylation events are ultimately triggered in response to a variety of extracellular and other stimuli. Examples of such stimuli include environmental and chemical stress signals (e.g., osmotic shock, heat shock, ultraviolet radiation, bacterial endotoxin, and H2O2), cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)), and growth factors (e.g., granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)). An extracellular stimulus may affect one or more cellular responses related to cell growth, migration, differentiation, secretion of hormones, activation of transcription factors, muscle contraction, glucose metabolism, control of protein synthesis, and regulation of the cell cycle.
Many diseases are associated with abnormal cellular responses triggered by protein kinase-mediated events as described above. These diseases include, but are not limited to, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases, bone diseases, metabolic diseases, neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, allergies and asthma, Alzheimer's disease, and hormone-related diseases. Accordingly, there has been a substantial effort in medicinal chemistry to find protein kinase inhibitors that are effective as therapeutic agents.
The Janus kinases (JAK) are a family of tyrosine kinases consisting of JAK1, JAK2, JAK3 and TYK2. The JAKs play a critical role in cytokine signaling. The down-stream substrates of the JAK family of kinases include the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins. JAK/STAT signaling has been implicated in the mediation of many abnormal immune responses such as allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases such as transplant rejection, rheumatoid arthritis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis as well as in solid and hematologic malignancies such as leukemias and lymphomas. The pharmaceutical intervention in the JAK/STAT pathway has been reviewed [Frank Mol. Med. 5: 432-456 (1999) & Seidel, et al, Oncogene 19: 2645-2656 (2000)].
JAK1, JAK2, and TYK2 are ubiquitously expressed, while JAK3 is predominantly expressed in hematopoietic cells. JAK3 binds exclusively to the common cytokine receptor gamma chain (γc) and is activated by IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, and IL-15. The proliferation and survival of murine mast cells induced by IL-4 and IL-9 have, in fact, been shown to be dependent on JAK3- and 65c-signaling [Suzuki et al, Blood 96: 2172-2180 (2000)].
Cross-linking of the high-affinity immunoglobulin (Ig) E receptors of sensitized mast cells leads to a release of proinflammatory mediators, including a number of vasoactive cytokines resulting in acute allergic, or immediate (type I) hypersensitivity reactions [Gordon et al, Nature 346: 274-276 (1990) & Galli, N. Engl. J. Med., 328: 257-265 (1993)]. A crucial role for JAK3 in IgE receptor-mediated mast cell responses in vitro and in vivo has been established [Malaviya, et al, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 257: 807-813 (1999)]. In addition, the prevention of type I hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylaxis, mediated by mast cell-activation through inhibition of JAK3 has also been reported [Malaviya et al, J. Biol. Chem. 274:27028-27038 (1999)].
The JAK family of tyrosine kinases have also been shown to play a role in immunosuppression and allograft acceptance [Kirken, Transpl. Proc. 33: 3268-3270 (2001)], rheumatoid arthritis [Muller-Ladner, et al., J. Immunol. 164: 3894-3901 (2000)], Familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [Trieu, et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 267: 22-25 (2000)], and leukemia [Sudbeck, et al., Clin. Cancer Res. 5: 1569-1582 (1999)].
Initiation, progression, and completion of the mammalian cell cycle are regulated by various cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) complexes, which are critical for cell growth. These complexes comprise at least a catalytic (the CDK itself) and a regulatory (cyclin) subunit. Some of the more important complexes for cell cycle regulation include cyclin A (CDK1—also known as cdc2, and CDK2), cyclin B1-B3 (CDK1) and cyclin D1-D3 (CDK2, CDK4, CDK5, CDK6), cyclin E (CDK2). Each of these complexes is involved in a particular phase of the cell cycle. Not all members of the CDK family are involved exclusively in cell cycle control, however. Thus CDKs 7, 8, and 9 are implicated in the regulation of transcription, and CDK5 plays a role in neuronal and secretory cell function.
The activity of CDKs is regulated post-translationally, by transitory associations with other proteins, and by alterations of their intracellular localization. Tumor development is closely associated with genetic alteration and deregulation of CDKs and their regulators, suggesting that inhibitors of CDKs may be useful anti-cancer therapeutics. Indeed, early results suggest that transformed and normal cells differ in their requirement for, e.g., cyclin A/CDK2 and that it may be possible to develop novel antineoplastic agents devoid of the general host toxicity observed with conventional cytotoxic and cytostatic drugs. While inhibition of cell cycle-related CDKs is clearly relevant in, e.g., oncology applications, this may not be the case for the inhibition of RNA polymerase-regulating CDKs. On the other hand, inhibition of CDK9/cyclin T function was recently linked to prevention of HIV replication and the discovery of new CDK biology thus continues to open up new therapeutic indications for CDK inhibitors (Sausville, E. A. Trends Molec. Med. 2002, 8, S32-S37).
The function of CDKs is to phosphorylate and thus activate or deactivate certain proteins, including e.g. retinoblastoma proteins, lamins, histone H1, and components of the mitotic spindle. The catalytic step mediated by CDKs involves a phospho-transfer reaction from ATP to the macromolecular enzyme substrate. Several groups of compounds (reviewed in e.g. Fischer, P. M. Curr. Opin. Drug Discovery Dev. 2001, 4, 623-634) have been found to possess anti-proliferative properties by virtue of CDK-specific ATP antagonism.
Thus, there is a continued need to find new therapeutic agents to treat human diseases. Accordingly, there is a great need to develop inhibitors of protein kinases, such as Jak1, Jak2 and Jak3, as well as CDK1, CDK2, CDK4, CDK5, CDK6, CDK7, CDK8 and CDK9.